Israeli names

[nkafkafi]

> David:
> Thank you Neri, for an interesting and informative explanation.
> 
> Presumably some of the other names you mention were not favoured in 
> the past for similar reasons, e.g. Omri was not well-regarded by 
the 
> Biblical authors, and Evyatar (Abiathar in English translations, 
> right?) was last in the line of priests that was superseded by 
Zadok 
> after Samuel's denunciation of Eli.
> 

I see you know the Bible better than I do :-) You are definitely 
right about Omri not being popular with the biblical authors. I think 
he was not pious enough for their taste, besides the crime of not 
being of the House of David (or even from the Judea tribe). The 
majority of modern israelis are secular, so they don't have much of a 
problem with this, but I suspect the name is now popular mainly 
because it has a nice sound and symbolic meaning (it means "my 
harvest"). I didn't know about Evyatar being translated "Abiathar" 
(never bothering to read the english translation). My brother Evyatar 
will be interested to hear about this...

Neri